Mumbai, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday announced the launch of quarterly “order books, inventories and capacity utilisation” survey of companies in the manufacturing sector — a key input it uses to formulate the monetary policy. The RBI has been conducting the order books, inventories and capacity utilisation survey (OBICUS) of the manufacturing sector on a quarterly basis since 2008.
The information collected in the survey includes quantitative data on new orders received during the reference quarter (April-June 2024), backlog of orders at the beginning of the quarter, pending orders at the end of the quarter, total inventories with a breakup between finished goods, work-in-progress and raw material inventories at the end of the quarter.
Item-wise production in terms of quantity and value during the quarter vis-a-vis the installed capacity from the targeted group and the reasons for changes in production/installed capacity during the quarter is also collected.
The level of capacity utilisation is estimated from the responses.
“The survey provides valuable input for monetary policy formulation,” the RBI said.
It also said company level data are treated as confidential and never disclosed.
